An Empirical Investigation into the Adoption of Open Source Software in Hospitals

Gilberto Munoz-Cornejo, Carolyn B. Seaman and A. Günes Koru
Additional contact information
Gilberto Munoz-Cornejo: University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
Carolyn B. Seaman: University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
A. Günes Koru: University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI), 2008, vol. 3, issue 3, 16-37

Abstract: Open source software (OSS) has gained considerable attention recently in healthcare. Yet, how and why OSS is being adopted within hospitals in particular remains a poorly understood issue. This research attempts to further this understanding. A mixed-method research approach was used to explore the extent of OSS adoption in hospitals as well as the factors facilitating and inhibiting adoption. The findings suggest a very limited adoption of OSS in hospitals. Hospitals tend to adopt general-purpose instead of domain-specific OSS. We found that software vendors are the critical factor facilitating the adoption of OSS in hospitals. Conversely, lack of in-house development as well as a perceived lack of security, quality, and accountability of OSS products were factors inhibiting adoption. An empirical model is presented to illustrate the factors facilitating and inhibiting the adoption of OSS in hospitals.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/jhisi.2008070102 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jhisi0:v:3:y:2008:i:3:p:16-37

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI) is currently edited by Qiang (Shawn) Cheng

More articles in International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().